Dakotas cattlemen say bison ranch owner from Florida has a lot to learn about cattle country

SELFRIDGE, N.D. (AP) The owner of a bison ranch along the North Dakota-South Dakota border says he will pay for damage from an incident in January where hundreds of bison broke loose.

Maurice Wilder, of Clearwater, Florida, says he knows he's considered an outsider, and he wants to be a good neighbor. He says he'll pay the claims totaling more than $60,000 to eight ranchers whose hay and fences were damaged.

Sioux County state's attorney John Gosbee filed charges last month against Wilder's ranch, including one count of misdemeanor animal neglect and 99 counts of livestock at large.

Ranchers say the bison will likely escape again because Wilder has too many animals for the amount of pastureland he owns. They say he still has to learn the golden rule in cattle country that good fences make good neighbors.

Wilder says the problems have been caused by mismanagement. He says he fired his ranch boss and recently hired a veteran ranch manager to watch over the operation, which spans some 35,000 acres in the Dakotas.

The ranch has about 3,000 bison, 1,200 cattle and seven employees. The bison are slaughtered in North Dakota, Minnesota and Colorado and sold for meat.

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